Born in Clyde, Ohio, in 1828,
James Birdseye McPherson left home at 13 to clerk in a store in nearby
Green Springs. He attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point,
graduating first in his class, in 1853.

When the Civil War began,
McPherson served under General Ulysses S. Grant, who appointed him
in 1863 to lead the Army of the Tennessee. Killed in an ambush in
1864 near Atlanta, Major-General McPherson was the highest-ranking
Union officer killed in the Civil War. He is buried in Clyde, in the
McPherson Cemetery, named for him.